LIFE Project: Management of slow-growing forests for climate change mitigation

The establishment of emissions trading systems has promoted ambitious GHG reductions by creating economic incentives to reduce CO2 emissions from many activities. Outside this control system are the diffuse, less energy-intensive sectors (residential, transport, waste, agriculture, fluorinated gases, and other industries) that are responsible for around 40% of EU GHG emissions. Regulation (EU) 2018/842 of the European Parliament and of the Council demonstrates the EU's interest in promoting emissions reductions from these sectors. To achieve this, it is necessary to develop regulatory and operational frameworks at the national or regional level that channel the compensatory interest of these sectors into actions capable of sequestering additional carbon than that sequestered by the natural environment.

Private financial flows can be essential for sustaining beech forests in the EU, which, due to their slow growth, are not being used in CO2 capture policies, despite scientific evidence that the complex ecosystems they generate have a high CO2 sequestration capacity. The project will be developed in cork oak forests and replicated in beech forests, whose products do not emit CO2 but instead sequester it for a long lifespan (cork in industry, wood in construction). The results can be extrapolated to a family widely distributed throughout the EU, in complementary habitats within the Natura 2000 Network, with a significant impact on biodiversity and the socioeconomic environment.